Prior art line shaft roller conveyors typically have their load rollers secured to the side rails of their frames. Where the line shaft drives the rollers with belts, the belts are typically directly wrapped around the rollers. For maintenance and replacement purposes, removal of the rollers would be relatively time consuming, requiring the conveyor to be shut down for a relatively longer period. In the food industry where stringent sanitary requirements are standard, cleaning the rollers would be time consuming where the rollers had to be removed for thorough cleaning.
In prior art accumulating roller conveyors, back pressure generally develops when a slow or shutdown in one portion of the processing line causes the articles being conveyed to backup. Back pressure can damage the articles being conveyed, particularly tapered and overcapped containers or soft side packages.
There is therefore a need for roller conveyors that solve the above problems.